Everything Rots

We sometimes wonder why important things fall apart, whether it’s human bodies being destroyed by aging, social movements succumbing to infighting, or software code bases accumulating cruft. A better question to ask is why do some things last as long as they do. Everything rots. Everything complex gradually accumulates errors until it falls apart. The question isn’t whether something will rot, but whether it will grow fast enough that it produces something of value before it collapses. When something lasts a long time, it is usually because it has a core that changes slowly, and that core creates an environment that allows sub-parts to rot individually, and have their place taken by things that haven’t rotted yet. We can see this in the the design of political systems (slow changing constitutions and fast rotting parties), bodies (slow changing DNA and fast-rotting cells), code bases (slow changing core platform, and fast-rotting apps), and economic systems (slow changing rules, and fast-rotting companies).